In image forming devices such as printers which are electronic equipment, some image forming devices have a document box function in which for example, document data scanned by a scanner is stored in a storage area called a document box.
In the document box function, the user is allowed to make use of the document data stored in the document box by accessing the document box in the image forming device.
However, in making use of a plurality of image forming devices by connecting thereto by way of such a network as a LAN, since a document box of each image forming device is independent of document boxes of the other image forming devices, when a user attempts to make use of document data in the respective document boxes of the image forming devices, the user needs to access individually the image forming devices.
In contrast with this, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which data stored in multi-function data servers, which are a plurality of electronic equipments connected together by way of a network, can be made available for use easily.
In Patent Literature 1, when each multi-function data server receives a request to refer to data from a user terminal, it is determined whether the access destination is the subject server or the other multi-function server or servers.
In the case of the access destination being the subject server, retrieved data is sent to the terminal of the user who made the data reference request. On the other hand, in the case of the access destination being the other multi-function data server or servers, address information on the multi-function data server or servers of the access destination is obtained from an authentication server, and the multi-function data server or servers are accessed based on the obtained address information to obtain data requested.
Consequently, in the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the user can easily make use of the data stored in the plurality of multi-function data servers without having to access individually the multi-function data servers.
In the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, however, in the case of the access destination being the other multi-function data server or servers, the address information on them is obtained from the authentication server provided separately, and therefore, there is caused a problem that the configuration and processing of the system becomes complex.